Buildings & Transport

Working in smart city projects requires to bring together different players in this very diverse eco-system, from IT to product suppliers, service providers, finance, social innovators and of course the cities with their various departments. A good way to start is looking at top notch smart city projects as well as knowledge, matchmaking and IT platforms.

Solid urban waste (SUW) is an abundant source for circular products production, but it is generally not exploited. Over 500 kg of municipal waste per capita were generated in the EU in 2020, while only 45% was recycled.

The Smart Cities Marketplace initiative, Citizens Control of Personal Data will launch a book on the EC stand at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona on November 15th. It will address some of the issues which a smart city needs to overcome to make use of both the data currently available to them and how this can be enhanced by using emerging technology.

Peachtree Corners is one of the USA top testing grounds for shiny new smart city technology. The 45,000-person city is home to an unusual public innovation experiment. Curiosity Lb invites private firms to come test out their prototypes.

Smart cities use information and communication technology (ICT) to improve operational efficiency, share information with the public and provide a better quality of government service and citizen welfare. The UN predicts that 70% of the world population will be living in cities and urban areas by 2050.

ProcuRE launched the first out of three phases towards reaching its goal. Six procurers from Slovenia, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Israel, and Turkey selected three innovative Renovation Approaches. The Call for Tenders was released on 24 November 2021.

Hydrogen is the talk of the town and the Commission makes it a big priority in its green industrial strategy. There are few hydrogen fuel cell cars and most of them are actually demonstration vehicles.

Digital finance is increasingly demonstrating its ability to overcome key barriers for smaller scale project finance. Few exist today but a growing number is in development driven by the need to mobilize private capital to support sustainable growth.

Do you know Jack Mas 3-minute loan? SME can get up to 300.000 USD within a few hours purely using an online service. Juergen Ritzek gives an overview on the state of play of digital financing platforms, structured into three groups.